PATRIOTISM.THE SAFE GUAED OFTHE NATION. 



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KANSAS COMMANDER Y 



MILITARY ORDER 



—OF THE- 



LOYAL LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES, 



WAR PAPER. 



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nis father aud mother and 
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Author 




PATRIOTISM,THE SAFE GUARD OF THE NATION. 



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A Paper read before the Kansas Commandery of the Military Order of 
the Loyal Legion of the United States, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 
March 7, 1894, by Companion Major 0. B. Gunn. 



Patriotism is defined as the love of oue's country, and a patriot is 
one who zealously supports and defends it. To be loyal to ones country 
is to be devoted to the maintenance of law, to be ready to uphold the 
constitutional authority, to be faithful to the lawful government, and 
to be ready to take up arms in its defense when it is assailed by its 
enemies. 

The germ of Patriotism is born in the cradle, and is developed in 
the home. Its first development is in the love and loyalty between the 
mother and tlie voung child ; then comes the loyalty of the members of 
the family one towards another, and all towards their home, which all 
stand ready to defend. With the lessons of obedience, love and integri- 
ty taught in the home come a high and pure type of loyalty. Next 
comes the loyalty to one's own city or county and its environments. With 
a larger growth comes the loyalty to one's native or adopted State ; still 
later, with a bi'oader understanding of affairs, comes loyal :y to the Na- 
tion, and as all local growth and prosperity depends upon the growth 
and prosperity of the Nation, so all loyalty finds its highest type in the 
love of the nation and obedience to its Constitution and laws, which is 
summed up in the word "Patriotism." 

It is written that, "A man shall leave his father and mother and 
cleave unto his wife." It should also be written that a man will leave his 



tather and mother, brothers and sisters, wife and eliihlrcii, and shoulder 
his musket and go to the defense ot ids country in its liour of pei-il. It 
is a crlorious thing to liuow that such a patriotic sentiment pervades the 
human heart, and that a call to arms in defense of the nation is never 
made in vain. 

The safety, security and well being of every citizen, depends up- 
on the stability o. tlie Government, and the wise exercise of its adminis- 
trative powers; and any attempt to obstruct the enforcement of the laws 
by force, is sure to produce a condition of great political excitement, 
leading directly to anarchy. 

Under a ive}»ublican form of government, when faithfully and 
honestly administered, there can be no long continued mal-administration 
of governmental powers, or oppressio.i of toe people, for the reason that 
every male citizen ot lawful age has the right to vote, and the poor and 
the weak, have the same political rights, as tlie rich and the strong, and 
they are absolutely equal at the ballot box, ])rovided always, that elec- 
tions are honestly conducted. As all real or imaginary wnjngs', can be 
righted by the ballot, there ought never to be occasion for a rebellion 
against the constitutional authorities, and a resort to arms to (jverthrow 
the government. 

The ballot box and the ballvt, are the true weajjons with which to 
defend our political rights, and any man guilty of robbing the citizen of 
this just and constitutional, right to a free ballot, and an honest count, 
should be deemed worse than a ighway robber. 

Treason is the attempt to overturn the constitution, and destroy 
the lawful government, and is the opposite of patri(>tism. 

In this country treason is cojitiued to actually levying war against 
the United iStates, or adhering to its enemies. Under our con.-.titution, 
any number of persons can form a conspiracy to make war upon and 
overthrow the government by force of arms, and can make any number 
of incendiary speeches de jouncing the government, and inciting the peo- 
ple to revolt, and take up arms against it, but for this they cannot be 
punished for treason. It requires the overt act of actually making war 
upon the government, or aiding and abetting its enemies, to constitute 
treason, and when this overt act is committed it is treason and those en- 
gaged in it are traitors. In all civilized countries the penalty of treason 
is death. 

When Gen. Benedict Arnold in command of the Continental Ar- 



my at West Point, conspired with the British Commander, to betray his 
army into the hands of the enemies of his country, he became a traitor 
and to this day his name is held in equal abhorrence with that of Judas 
Iscarriot. No man in this country, esteems him other than guilty of 
treason, and had he not escaped within the enemies lines, he woukl have 
been tried as a traitor, convicted as a traitor, and hanged as a traitor 
and the line between his treason, and the loyalty of other officers/of the army 
is as clear and well defined to-day, as it was the day his traitorous con- 
duct became known. 

Arnold was ap])()iiited into the army from civil life, and had no 
previous military experience, except as Captain of a Militia Company, 
but he was a man of great energy and [lersonal courage, and soon devel- 
oped quite a genius for military operations, l)ut he possessed a violent and 
venge.'ul disposition, and was dishonest and mercenary in his dealings 
with men. He was vain, egotistical, and exceedingly jealous of others. 
He was very angiy that others were promoted in advance of himself, and 
when at last he was promoted and made a Major Genend, he found him- 
self ranked by others whom he considered his inferiors. When at last 
his dishonesty and mercenary conduct caused him to be court-martialed 
and he was reprimanded by the C(»mmander-in-Chief, his lage knew no 
bounds, and it undoubtedly confirmed him in his already half formed 
plan to desert to the enemy, where he believed fame and fortune awaited 
him. He intended to betray West Point, at that time C(msidered a great 
strategic point, into the hands of the British Commander, and but for 
the arrest ot Major Andi-e, with papers developing the whole plot, upon his 
perscm, would doulitless have succeeded. It is some satisfaction to know 
that he never achieved especial distinction in the British Army, his mon- 
ey reward was much less than he expected, and in London he was des- 
pised and insulted, and finally died in utter obscurity. 

When the leaders of the Slave-holder's rebellion, most of whom 
were among the highest civil oflicers of the government of the United 
States, formed a great conspiracy, to make war, and actually ilid make 
war upon, and attempted to overthrow the government, they were guiltv 
of treason even in a greater degree, than Benedict Arnold. He was actu- 
ated by a spirit of personal revenge, for r-eal or imaginary wrongs. They 
had no such feeling to urge them on. They had had possession of the 
government and its administration almost continually from its foundation. 
The real (]uestion at issue was that of human slavery, — the ownership 



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of man by man. Shall the States be all free or all slave ? . The excuse 
for war was the peaceful and quiet election of that great and good man, 
Abraham Lincoln, to the Presidency of the United States, iu place of 
the weak and vacillating Buchauan. The encroachments of the slave 
ifbwer were so bold and aggressive, that the people proposed to institute 
a reform at the ballot box. For this offense. Southern members of the 
Cabinet, Senators and Representatives, at once made active preparations 
to dismember and destroy the government, headed by that arch traitor, 
Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War ; the army was scattered, the 
forts dismantled, or placed within the jurisdiction of the rebels, 
the navy disorganized, the treasury robbed, and everything done 
to render the government so weak and powerless, 'as to be un- 
able to make a successful fight for its life, and to fall an 
easy prey to- the conspirators. During mouths of secession and trait- 
orous preparation, not the slightest attempt was made to counteract these 
traitorous movements. The supreme moment finally came; Fort Sump- 
ter was attacked, the overt act was committed, the treason was consummated, 
and thenati(jn, after being crippled and almost straiigled to death with no 
ri"-ht of defense until the overt act was committed, at last had a right to 
defend itself. Many thousand lives were lost.tiiousands of homes were made 
desolate, millions of money were spent and on many a hard fought battle 
field, the ground was .soaked with human blood. At first these infamous 
conspirators were called traitors, later, after tliey formed a so- 
called Confederacy, and put large armies in the field, they were called 
rebels ; later still, as the war progressed these offensive terms were mod- 
ified, and the mild, inoffen.sive and polite term "Confederates" became 
the correct t'lyug. At the final surrender at Appomattox, (jfeu. Grant, 
with a magnanimity- without precedence in tin- history ol the woi-ld, al- 
lowed (xeneral L '^^ t) retain his sword and his officers their side arms, 
and parohid his entire ar:nv on such lil)er:.l terms, as no conquering hero 
had ever before done to a vanquished foe. To General Lee's honor 
be it said, that he acknowledged himself vanquished, his cause lost. He 
accepted the situation quietly, and in good taith letired to private Hie, 
and was never known to utter a- word of disjiaragement to the Govern- 
ment tiiereafter. Not niany montlis had ehipsed beiore those who had 
eno-aged iu the rc^bellion were panloneil by tlie magnanimous Govern- 
ment, and one by one wei-e returned to their old places in the Senate and 
House of Tle])resentatives, in Washington, and for the last twenty years, 



— — 

may truly be said to have had control of the House of Representatives, 
Now with all this great-hearted action of the Government, with the full 
approbation of the people of the loyal states, one would suppose that the 
beaten and thoroughly defeated confederates would plainly see, that the 
people of the loyal states, had no hatred of the people of the rebellious 
states. They fought —not to kill and destroy, because they hated slave 
holders, but simply to uphold and sustain the lawful government. They 
did not hate the slave holders, but the system of cruelty and oppression, 
which the ownership uf man by man had built up, and the pernicious doc- 
ti'ine, that the state was greater than the nation, and that the citizen's first 
allegiance was to the state, and when the authority of the state and na- 
tion were in conflict, it was his duty to take up arms against the Nation- 
al Government, when called u])()n by state authoi'ities. 

Unfortunately in this country the tuition is made up of a consoli- 
dation of States, each with certain reserved constitutional rights. The 
line between the rights of the States and those of the Nation was so dim 
and indistinct as to furnish a foothold for those states determined to 
separate from the other states, to demand the right to a quiet with- 
drawal from the nation, and the light to set up a separate Government 
fu" themselves. 

The doctrine of nulliticatioii promulgated by Calhoun in 1828, in 
which he declared that each state had the constitutional right to decide 
for itself upo:i th'3 constitutionality of any law passed by Congress and 
prevent its execution within its own limits if regarded as inimical to its 
own interests, was probably the origin of the rigiit of secession claimed by 
the Southern states thirty years later. 

At any rate the State's Rights Idea was the basis of the secession 
movement, and while slavery was the prime first cause, the claimed right 
of secession was the excuse and half-open door through which the rebels 
expected to quietly walkout of the Union, and there were many in the 
loyal states wli^o dreaded a civil war, and thought it the best way to let 
tlie " erring sisters go in peace," and even .so eminent an opponent of 
the slave power as Horace Greeley advocated this idea, when it was found 
thiit Civil War was inevitable. Such a course would have been a death 
blow to our National existence, as it would have .shown to the world, and 
to our.selves, that our boasted form of Government was only held togeth- 
er by a rope of sand, to be destroyed whenever a rebellion should arise in 
any sta'e, and the state authorities should demand a release from the Un- 
ion, and patriotism, instead of being a living principle, would have be- 
come onlv the ijfhost of a dead sentiment. 



A civil war is the most deplorable of all wars ; when oue nation 
opposes another in battle array it is bad enough, but in a civil war, where 
father is often arrayed against son, and brother against brother, nothing can 
be more deplorable. Then the war is often carried into the home and in- 
vades the fireside; thousands of such cases occured in the late War 
of the Rebellion, mostly in the border states. It being a political war 
for the dismemberment of the Union and the permanent establishment of 
slavery on the one side, and the perpetuity of the nation on the other, 
both sides fought with bravery, energy and desperation. The Union 
troops were ready to lay down their lives for their country, and no greater 
display of patriotism was ever seen in any country. The people iu com- 
prehension of the impending conflict were far in advance of the admin- 
istration, and thousanils of common people foresaw what the administra- 
tion seemed to fail to see that it was to be a long and bloody war, only 
to be ended by the total defeat and vanquishinent of the one side or the 

other. 

\V hen Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president, he found the 
government without an army, and a treasury without money, yet not- 
withstanding that the rebels were arming and organizing all over the 
south Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet seemed to think it all a bluff, and 
that the South had no real intention of precipitating Civil War. In the 
meantime, the patriotism of the loyal states was thorouglily aroused, and 
the blood of every patriot boiled with indignation at the daily reports of 
the outrages perpetrated by ihe southern states in actively promoting se- 
cession, and the preparations which they were making for active war. 
At last Fort Sumpter was fired upon and very soon the feeble garrison 
surrendered. Little did the slave holders think that the sound of the first 
gun, as it reverbrated over Charleston harbor, sounded the death knell 
of slavery. The patriotism of the loyal men of tiie Nation was thor- 
oughly aroused and they sprang to arms as one man, but as incredible as 
it now seems, the President called for only 75,000 men, and those only for 
ninety days. Scores of regiments were offered to the government, only 
to be rejected, while the rebels had been organizing and drilling for 
months, and making every preparation for a long and bitter war. The 
disastrous battle of Bull Run, the Krst of the war, brought the adminis- 
tration to its senses. They began to see that the rebels were in earnest, 
and that grim visaged war with all its horrors was upon them. Not one 
of our soldiers or officers had ever seen a great battle. A few had achiev- 
ed distinction in the Mexican War, but that compared with the war they 



were euteriug upon was a mere skirmish. Our men rallied from all the 
walks and conditions of life, full of patriotism and enthusiasm, ready to 
do their part in the bloody conflict. After four years of hard fighting, 
the loss of hundreds of thousands of brave men, and the bereavement 
of thousands of homes, the war finally came to end, and victory 
crowned tlie Union arms. Peace was declared, hundreds of thousands 
of veteran soldiers were mustered out and returned quietly home to again 
engage in the pursuits of peace. 

Many predicted that having been so long under arms, and become 
so used to the carnage of war, that many of the old soldiers would return 
home worthless, dissipated and reckless, and would become a terror to 
the communities in which they lived. But the same noble patriotism 
which took them to war, and carried them through the hardships of many 
a bloody campaign, returned them good citizens, and no more orderly sol- 
diers ever returned to their homes. 

After the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox, the great ques- 
tion of dealing with the leading rebels came up for adjustment. Jeffer- 
son D.ivis, the ringleader who headed the rebellion was caught and ar- 
raigned for treason. Horace Greeley, whose constant crv through the 
New York Tribune of " On to Richmond " precipitated the first battle of 
Bull Run, causing great disaster to the raw Union troops, who had little 
idea of a great battle, and nearly causing the capture of Washington, and 
tiie establishment of the Confederacy then and there, came forward and 
became the principal bondsman for the arch traitor. That mawkish sen- 
timent which leads fair women to take flowers to piisou to bedeck a foul, 
murderer prevailed. Davis was set free without a trial, and that patriotic 
sentiment, "The penalty of treason is death " is practically declared by the 
action of the Government to be a sentiment only fit for use wlien calling for 
soldiers to defend the life of the Nation and when traitors are caught and ar- 
raigned for punishment to be cast aside as an assassin tramples upon the 6th 
commandment when he commits a murder. Perhaps after this exhibition 
of feebleness on the part of the Government it ought not to expect pat- 
riotis n to survive as a living principle among those who had fought the 
battles and savel the life of the nation. 

After the collapse of the Confederacy came the great question of 
reconstruction. Eleven states had passed ordinances of secession and 
claimed to be oul^of the Union. The rebels were defeated and hum Hat- 
ed, but still solid for the lost cause. Four millions of slaves were set free. 
What was the best thing to do ? was a question that might well engage 



8- 



the best thoudit of our wisest statesmen. Many like General Butler 
were in favor of holding the defeated states as conquered provinces. 
Others like Seward and Greeley were in ftivor of new elections ot the 
Legislatures under Federal jurisdiction. All were in favor of enfran 
chisiug the freed negroes, and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution 
was adopted, by which the late slaved' were enfranchised and were given 
the rio-ht of free suffrage, and the State Legislatures were set in motion. 
Many of the leading rebels were at first disfranchised, but afterwards 
were restored to the full right of citizenship. The adherents 
of the lost cause, who created the solid south, never once lost sight of re- 
gaining possession of the Government. In a few years the southern states 
were represented in both houses of Congress by Generals and high civil- 
ians who had been most active in promoting the rebellion. At first many 
freedmen were elected to Congress,under military supervision, but finally 
in 1876, all soldiers were withdrawn from the southern states, and the 
newly enfranchised negroes were left to the tender mercies of their late 
masters, and the freedmen became so thoroughly bulldozed and Ku- 
Kluxed by the late rebels, that they have finally ceased to be a political 
iactorin the southern states. Every protest of the loyal people against 
the outrages perpetrated upon the freed negroes were sneered at and de- 
clared to be "waving the bloody shirt." The South for the last few years 
has become so thonmghly solid that in Presidential elections every state 
which was formerly a slave holding state is counted upon as perfectly 
ciM-taia to vote in oppositiou to the sentiment which fought the battles 
for the Uni:)n. The solid south -has persistently worked for one thing 
and never lost sight of it, and that i^ t(» again git full control of the 
Government in all its departments. How well they have succeeded, I 
leave you to jiidge. 

Perhaps no device of the ex-confederates for winning the rnion 
soldiers awav from their loyalty to the patriotic .sentiments which fought 
the battles of the Union is so cunning and enticing as the Society of the 
Blue and the Gray. It teaches that tiie war is over, and that all who 
fought on both .sides were brave men ; that it was only a great family 
fio-ht in which the Union side by greater numbers and by force of arms 
vaiiqiii4ied the oth -r .side ; that each fought for what they thought was 
right, and cou.^eqn ntly each side was equally meiirorious. Wlieu a Un- 
ion .-oldier consents to sit or marcli under the coufederatcflag, ai.d see the 
fohls of "Old Glory" mixed and mingled with the banner ot secession 
and treason, von mav consider his patriotism a thing of the past, that is 



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if he ever had any, which may well be doubted. It shows, that he has 
uo couception of the principles involved in the great Civil War ; that it 
was a great contest involving the live of the Nation, organized and pre- 
cipitated by a gang of conspirators and traitors for the destruction of the 
Union and overthrow of the Nation. Where patriots were ranged upon 
one side and traitors were ranged upon the other, and the line between the 
two was distiuctly marked, and was the line between patriotism ;ind trea- 
son, which should never be allowed to be dimmed or obliterated. For a 
Union soldier to join the Society of the Blue and the Gray is equivalent 
to a desertion of the Union cause for which he fought and a declaration 
that patriotism is dead within his heart. Such conduct on the part of all 
Union sohliers would be a death blow to patriotism, and when the line 
between patriotism and treason becomes so dim as that, it will take but 
little to obliterate it entirely, and when i)atriotism is nearly dead in the 
hearts of the people, the life of the Republic is in great danger. 

The government of tlie i)eoi)le, by the people, and for the people, 
is now on trial. Ours is the only Republic on the face of the earth, ex- 
cept perhaps little Switzerland. France is a Republic only in name. 
The Central and South American Republics are absurd little concerns 
governed by a coterie of Spanish Grandees, and like their volcanoes gen- 
erally in a state of eruption. IMexico is but little better. 

Shall the great Republic endure is a question which many a man 
has asked himself, and it is a question of great concern. We have little 
danger of a foreign war, but the danger of another civil war is by no 
means remote. A foreign war unites and cements a Nation together, and 
arouses the fervor of Patriotism. The war cry then is " Our Country ! 
May it always be right ! But our Country right or wrong." All the an- 
imosities engendered by devastating war are directed towards the common 
foe, and the harder the fighting the more glorious the victory and the 
greater the glow ot patriotism. A Civil War on the other hand divides 
and distracts a Nation and engenders hatred of one portion of the people 
against another and against the Government. The vanquished never 
forgive the victors, and generations of time never wholly efface the effect 
of Civil War. 

There are many good reasons why we may not anticipate another 
foreign war. We occupy a peculiarly isolated position with regard to 
other Nations. Our strength is so great, and our Mexican and South 
American neighbors are so weak that there is little danger in that direc- 
tion. Canada and British America on the north are British provinces, 



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vast iu area, but thinly populated. Their territory adjoius us from the 
Atlautic to the Pacific, aud would be a most vulnerable point of attack, 
and we could put such an army in the field in ninety days as to capture 
and h(>ld it. The British could only attack us ettectively with its navy, 
and our own navy and coast defenses are growing rapidly, and are of the 
latest and best construction, and with our coast and merchant marine 
armed as privateers, we could iu a few months destroy British ocean 
commerce. 

The British Government is fully aware of our advantages, and 
the danger of seriously interfering with American affairs in any part of 
the world, so that the danger of war with the British Nation is very re- 
mote. No other foreign Nation is near enough to us to meddle with our 
aflTairs, and besides they have enough to do in watching each other, so 
there is very little danger of war with a fi)reign nation. 

As between the United States and Great Britain a curious senti- 
ment has been developed in favor of arbitration. A i'ew well disposed 
persons who think it is better and nobler to run away, than to fight for 
our rights, have devised this cowardly plan, and put it iu operation. Of 
course England is delighted to have its differences with the United States, 
arbitrated by the despotic governments of Europe, whose sympathies are 
all against us, and Faigland is sure by this method of getting two-thirds 
of the loaf, when by fighting she would get nothing but a thorough drub- 
bing. In our late unpleasantness about the Behring Sea, and its seals, 
by arbitration we gave ourselves away, and got the small end of the loaf, 
as we always will when we leave a foreign people to say whether we are 
right or wrong. Let our own best statesmen decide whether we are right 
or wrong. If w^e are right stand up and fight like a man ; i, wrong, sur 
render the case like a man. Imagine, if you can, France and Germany 
submitting their differences to half a dozen of the American Republics, 
or England arbitrating its differences with Egypt or Ireland in the same 
way. No, the logic of the situation is entirely against the likelihood of 
our being engaged in a foreign war for many years to to come. On the 
other hand there are good reasons why another Civil War may be ex- 
pected. The Union soldiers may not live to see it, but many of the 
young men now in their teens, will have to battle for the supremacy of 
the Union, as their fathers did before them. In the first place, we have 
all the religious on the face of the earth, Jews, Roman Catholics, 
Protestants of High and Low degree, Mormons, Mohammedans, 
Buddhists, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Free-thinkers, Agnostics and 



— 11 — 

Infidels; an incongruous multitude, and all more or less antagonistic to 
each other. Then we have all kinds of politics and political divisions be- 
tween whom no love is lost. Democrats, Republicans, Populists, Prohi- 
bitionists, Anarchists, Communists, Free Traders, Protectionists, Union 
Laborers, Female Suffragists, Gold Bugs, Silver Bugs, and every other 
kind of a political bug. The enmities of all these classes of religionists, 
and political clans, is so great, that patriotism is lost sight of in the gen- 
eral shuffle that all are engaged in, to reach the top rounds of the ladder, 
and gain control of the City, State and National Government. Our peo- 
ple are all in a state of unrest and discontent. We see the labor organ- 
ized against capital, and demanding the right to fix time, wages, and reg- 
ulations of the men who employ them, and the right to deny non-union 
men employment. Then we have the outrageously dishonest methods of 
elections, the most dangerous factor of all, gradually creeping over the 
whole body politic, and we need not go farther than Kansas City to learn 
all about the methods used to count out, and keep out enough votes to 
give the dominant party control of the local government, and greatly aid 
national and state politics. 

Again, we are the dumping ground for all the earth ; thousands 
of criminals and anarchists, are turned in upon us every year, whose only 
idea of a free country is, free whiskey, free lunches, free dives, and free 
brothels, freedom to cut the throat of honest people, not one with a 
knowledge of, or a care for, the institutions of our country, speakino- 
foreign languages, and who are rushed to the polls a few weeks after 
landing upon our shores, before becoming citizens, and are voted like so 
many cattle. 

These miscellaneous and incongruous peoples, religions and politics 
under our weak form of government, are bound to clash at some future time, 
and produce a civil war. Looking westward, over Kansas, we see a great 
state, but lately one of the most stalwart in its patriotism, upon wh(;se 
broad prairies,^ the first blood which preceded the war was spilled, in de- 
fense of a free ballot, and a free state ; the great lion of patriotism, in 
four short years, turned into a braying ass, led by an Amazon in petti- 
coats, and followed by a shrieking mob of Populists and Anarchists, with 
its demagogue Governor issuing a seditious call to the Governors of the 
Western and Southern States to hold a convention, to provide 
for a combination of those states against the Northern and Eastern 
States. Its delegation in congress, once among the most powerful and 
influential of any state, supplanted by a gang of cheap demagogues, 



— 12 — 

whose ouly idea of statesmauship is, that they must tear dovvu every- 
thing that it has taken a century to build up. 

In Colorado we see a governor who declares that the people of his 
state will I'ise in rebellion and wade to their horses' bridles in blood if 
Congress dares to pass laws believed to be unfevorable to their private 
interests, and calling the Legislature together in special session to pass 
coinao-e laws in violation of the constitution of the United States. 

In far off Oregon another seditious Governor who sends insulting 
messao-es to the president of the United States, and injects a seditious 
stump speech into a thanksgiving proclamation. 

Looking eastward, we see the country filled up with foreign crim- 
inals, Anarchists, and paupers, not yet citizens, from the old world, all 
votino- together like so many cattle. We sen the money aristocracy or- 
ganizing trusts of all kinds, in order to control the output of the nation's 
productions. 

^Ye gee a o-reat i)olitical octopus so complete and |)()werf'ul, as t > 
hold the great city of New York in its grip as in a vice. This great or- 
ganization, gathering in the ignorant immigrants from all nations, and 
tikini"- th ni to tlie polls, and voting them as thev please. This organi- 
zation is so p^)werful, unscrupulous and corrupt that it has finally got 
control of the state of New York, which in national affairs controls the 
nation. For a long time it has worked for this great prize, until it has 
it surelv in its grasp, and its sympathies, a d effort-; are not toward you, 
but a fainst von ahv;ivs. Similar organizations exist in every city worth 
h;<viii--, always on the alert, always \igilaut, always aggressive, always 
ready to vot'^ the ii>'norant,tht; corrupt and the degi-aded, always on the si<le 
of the sal)on, and dive and th ' broth '1, always up and awake when hon- 
est men are asleei). It stops at nothing to secure control of the govern- 
ment, both local a id n iti^mal. M 'asiiring all these antagonistic and cor- 
rupt forces, do x>n not s-e that we are upon :i volcano, which is liable 
to burst into an emotion at almost any time, and when it comes it will 
be tenfold wors<' than the late civil war. It will le fought not on sen- 
timental and inoial u'rounds, but on partisan an<l religions lines, which 
will divide families, villages, cities, and states, and arou.^e hatreds and 
animosities which will rend every community in the land, ;ind fortunate 
we shall be if the rni(ai is not torn into fragments. 

Natur ' s ins to have ordained an eternal warfare among all cre- 
ated beino-s. W ■ d 'dare that the cruel and savage wolf kills and devours 
the innocent 1 mb. and yet the wolf is just as innocent as the lamb. The 



— 13 — 

wolf is a carnivorous animal and is obliged to eat flesh and blood, or die. 
It c nnot subsist upon any other diet. It simply kills other animals to 
furnish life to itself and its offsprings. This is true of all carnivorous an- 
mals. In order to ex;ist, nature furnishes it with sharp teeth and claws, 
powerful jaws and great muscular power and a cunning that causes 
it like an assassin to lie in wait for its prey and spiing upon it unawares, 
bear down and destroy it. The carnivorous animal is always a fighting 
animal, and nature has provided it with fighting weapons. The herbif- 
erous animal on the contrary cannot exist upon flesh and blood, but must 
live upon rass and herbaceous food. Nature furnishes it with no weap- 
ons of defense against its carnivorous enemies. It only furnishes it with 
fleet legs with which to run away; consequently, all herbiferous animals 
appear to be cowards. The herbiferous animal destroys life only as it 
crushes the insects which seek cover in tlie herbage upon which it feeds 
or tramples the helpless worm beneath its feet. 

What is true of quadrupeds is also true of flesh and fish eating 
birds and the fish of the sea. 

Man is an omnivorous animal and devours almost anything that 
liv.s upon the earth or in the sea. Everything alike goes to his omniv- 
orous and ever hungry maw, and his alimentarv* canal every day passes 
ten times as much of tlie products of tiie earth as the Suez canal. Al- 
lowing each person upon the earth two ounces of flesh per dav, and the 
amount of flesh alone consumed every day is more than 90.000 tons, or 
enough to load a freight train 30 miles long. This shows what a tre- 
mendous slaughter liouse the world is, and it is so from necessity. 

Nature has given man no natural weapons of offense or defense, 
nor fleet limbs by which he can seek safety in flight, but has given him 
an active brain and cunning hands, by which he has gained dominion 
over all the earth. The wild beast kills only for food, and rarely one of 
its own species. But man preys upon his own species with even greater 
rapacity and cruelty than he hunts the wild beast. The wild beast kills 
only to appease its hunger, while man kills from fear, auger, jealousy, 
revenge, malice, avarice, fanaticism, and in time of war from patriot- 
ism. 

From the very dawn of history we read that the principal busi- 
ness of all nations, tribes and clans has been the killing of each other, 
sometimes by the marshalling of armies against each other, and some- 
times in single combat ; and not con'ent with killing, the strong have 
mutilated and tortured the weak in everv conceivable wav. To call their 



— 14 — 

methods brutal would be a libel upon the brutes. They were horrible, fiend- 
ish and devilish. The Inquisition, the dungeon, the rack. the torch.the crucifix, 
the thumb screw, pulling limb from limb, breaking the bones, and tearing 
the flesh, and every fiendish torture that the ingenuity of man could de- 
vise, were the fate of those who dared to think differently from those in 
power. In war, death, destruction, rapine, and plunder, were the order, 
and the weaker races have been exterminated and swept from the face of 
the earth, wliile the stronger races, are to-day, almost face to face with 
their immense armies, and death dealing machines, ready at any time on 
slight provocation to plunge headlong into devastating war, and 
wipe each other out of existence. And this is Nature's way of keeping 
down the population of the earth, and it is a necessity that it should be 
so. It is said that during the middle aues the world was so desolated by 
war, pestilence and famine that the population of the earth only doubled 
once in a thousand years, but now with wars nearly done away with, pes- 
tilence conquered by knowledge of hygienic laws, ; nd famine prevented 
by extraordinary facilities for distribution, the population is increasing 
with great rapidity. In this country we have increased four per cent, per 
annum ever since the Revolutionary war, a'ld we are increasing now at 
the rate of three yer cent, per annum. In A. D. 1900 we will have 
more than 70,000,000 of inhabi taints. Continue our rate of increase at 
three per cent, per annum, and we double three times in a century, and 
in A. D. 2000 we will have 560,000,000 of people, and in A. D. 2050, 
we will have in the United States a population equal to the entire present 
p<»l)ulation of the world. 

These figures are appallingand lead us to enquire what is to become 
of the future tremendous p )pulation of the earth. Already Euroj)e 
cannot produce enough to feed its crowded population. Asia, with the 
exception of Russia in Asia, is but little better off. Supposing that the 
population of the whole earth should only increase only at the rate of 
doubling once in a century, then in the year 2090 there will l)e 8,000,- 
000,000 of people living, and in A. D 2100 there will \w 6,000,000,000 
people and so on to the end. 

Even at the lowest estimate you may choose to make, the time is 
not many centuries ahead when the world will be so overcrowded with 
population that they cannot find standing room or enoug \ to eat. It will 
then indeed be a struggle for existence, and the survival of the fittest. 
From a purely pliilosophical standpoint, it would seem that whatever 
tends to keep down the population of the earth would be a blessing to fu- 



— 15 — 

ture geueratious, while from a moral standpoint we feel bound to niake 
present generations as healthy and long lived as possible without troub- 
ling ourselves about future generations. Nevertheless the time will sure- 
ly come, and not many centuries in the future, when generations will be 
unable to provide themselves with sufficient food and when they will 
have to fight and kill their fellow men for the right to live them- 
selves. 

When these conditions arise, as they surely will, Nature will as- 
sert herself, and in the struggle for existence, the weak will be crushed 
and swept oli' the face of the earth. 

Warfare then seems to be the natural condition of mankind. Cain 
the Hrst son of Adam and Eve, began war when he slew his brother 
Abel, and the warfare has-been continuous ever since; some times in sin- 
gle combat,sonietimes by an aggregation of men, called armies, and ageneral 
slaughter till one or the other was vanquished or wiped out of existence. 
And war has the full sanction of the Ahuigiity, for it is written that he 
personally conducted some of the Jewish wars, and even caused the sun 
and moou to stand still, in ortler to give Joshua and his army time to 
exterminate his enemies. The pages of sacred and profane history, are 
red with the blood of countless wars and battles, many of a religious 
character, where the religious sentiment was so stimulated as to turn men 
into tieads, till the thirst for blood only ended in the extermination ot 
the opposing men, the ravishment of their women, and the plunder and 
destruction of their homes. Wars are now conducted on what are called 
humane principles, and our own Civil War was probably conducted, on 
the Union side, with as much humanity as the slaughter of thousands of 
men in a single battle would permit. In the absence of war, our people 
amuse themselves after the manner of Cain, ami slaughter each other at 
leisure. The revolver and the knife are carried indiscrim- 
inately, by our people, largely by the vicious class, and murders are of 
daily occurrence all around us, and among us. The local governments 
are too weak to punish murderers, except in rare cases, and the murder- 
er who has money, or has a strong political backing, always goes scot free. 
Probably more mtm are murdered in this country every year than were 
killed in any battle during the war. But while we may deplore this con- 
dition of things, we should remember that this is Nature's way of keep- 
ing down the population of the earth, and will go on and on forever. 
Enough has been recited to show the dangers which lurk in ambush, and 
which may grow into Civil War and a dismemberment of the Nation. 



— l(i — 

The Union soldiers can do nothing to prevent it, but we can stick to the 
old flao' • sulfer no blandishments to cause us to mix the blue with the 
gray, and thereby demoralize our patriotism, but stand squarely where we 
stood in the trying times of war, and ever declare that the line between 
patriotism and treason shall never be dimmed or obscured, 

And to the young men who know nothing personally of the hor- 
rors of war, remember that patriotism is a divine sentiment. It has 
built up all the grand and substantial governments of the earth, whether 
Christian or Paoan, It is that noble sentiment without which no gov- 
ernment could long exist. It is tiie tie that binds together all the people 
of a nation, and inspires them to I'isk their lives in its defense, in every 
hour of danij-er. In a foreign war patriotism is solidified in each nation 
at war, and under the inspiration of this sublime sentiment heroes are 
made. In a civil war the rebellious portion of the people, renounce their 
allej-iance, lose their patriotism, and become traitors ; and when con- 
quered never again feel the inspiration of that grand sentiment a« tliey 
did before. May heaven spare us from another Civil War. 
"Old Glory," the star spangled banner, the flag of our coun- 
try, is the visible eml)odiment of patriotism. It is beyond 
compare the handsomest flag that floats, and it represents the 
beautv and purity of our government, as devised and inaug- 
urated by our fathers, when every voter was supposed to be honest, iu- 
tellio"eut and virtuous, and that all elections would be fair and honest, 
and every vote counted as cast, free from all outside influences. That we 
have departed from the government, as originally designed by its found- 
ers we all know, and that much fraud and corruption is practiced in 
manv of our elections. That Civil War has dulled the edge of patriot- 
ism, no one can doubt, but that it still lives in the hearts of a majority 
of our people is undoubtedly true. As long as patriotism is a livitig sen- 
timent in our hearts, and we can rise above politics, the nation is safe, 
but when politics and partisanship rise above patriotism, the nation is in 
great peril. 

Remember always that "Eternal vigilance is the price of Lil)er- 
ty," and that Patriotism is the safeguard of the Nation, and let us 
resolve that 

While vve live, luitil we die, to oiir country, we'll be true. 
In ruemory of the loyal dead, we'll pledge ourselves anew, 

To be faithful to our Country's cause, and the gallant boys in blue. 
Who fought, bled and died to save the Union. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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